Markus Wolf, the spymaster who epitomized Cold War espionage as head of the brutal and cleverly inventive East German foreign intelligence service, died Thursday at his home in Berlin. He was 83. The cause of death was not announced. Suave and elusive, Wolf was such an enigma that Western intelligence agencies didn't know exactly what he looked like during tense decades when a divided Germany was a haven for agents and double agents in a war for information between Moscow and Washington.

Markus Wolf, the spymaster who epitomized Cold War espionage as head of the brutal and cleverly inventive East German foreign intelligence service, died Thursday at his home in Berlin. He was 83. The cause of death was not announced. Suave and elusive, Wolf was such an enigma that Western intelligence agencies didn't know exactly what he looked like during tense decades when a divided Germany was a haven for agents and double agents in a war for information between Moscow and Washington.

Criminal charges were filed Thursday against Markus Wolf, the legendary "man without a face" who ran Communist East Germany's devastatingly successful network of Cold War spies. The Federal Prosecutor's Office accused Wolf, 69, of espionage, bribery and treason in an indictment that ticked off a dozen of his most dazzling exploits. Wolf, who surrendered to German officials earlier this year, remained free on bond pending trial.

June 22, 1997 | PETER SCHNEIDER, Peter Schneider, author of "The Wall Jumper" and, most recently, "Couplings," lives in Berlin. His review was translated from the German by Frank F. Wagner

We live in the age of confession, of the memoir, of the "tell-all." Even a figure like Markus Wolf, whose job was never to say a word, turns out not to be immune to the seductions of the genre. As "the greatest spymaster of our century," or so his publisher would have us believe, Wolf might seem to be the last man willing to tell secrets.

June 22, 1997 | PETER SCHNEIDER, Peter Schneider, author of "The Wall Jumper" and, most recently, "Couplings," lives in Berlin. His review was translated from the German by Frank F. Wagner

We live in the age of confession, of the memoir, of the "tell-all." Even a figure like Markus Wolf, whose job was never to say a word, turns out not to be immune to the seductions of the genre. As "the greatest spymaster of our century," or so his publisher would have us believe, Wolf might seem to be the last man willing to tell secrets.

Germany's federal appeals court threw out the conviction of former East German spymaster Markus Wolf and ordered a retrial to determine if he ever personally spied in the West. The decision follows a May 23 ruling by Germany's highest court that East German spy leaders could not be tried for treason if their work was done entirely in East Germany. Wolf, who headed East Germany's foreign intelligence service from 1953 to 1986, was sentenced to six years in prison in 1993 for espionage.

Four weeks after opening amid a flurry of publicity, eyes focus once again Wednesday on the trial of the Cold War's most innovative spymaster, Markus Wolf, the man who developed and directed East Germany's network of 5,000 to 6,000 espionage agents. Scheduled to take the stand is Guenther Guillaume, who spy buffs remember was the East German agent that Wolf planted in the office of then-West German Chancellor Willy Brandt.

A lengthy attempt to prosecute Markus Wolf, the legendary "man without a face" who ran East Germany's spy agency for more than 30 years, ended with a whimper Tuesday as a state high court gave him a two-year suspended sentence on relatively minor charges and let him leave the courthouse a free man.

The Cold War's most notorious spymaster, Markus Wolf, went on trial Tuesday in united Germany, contending that he faces "absurd" charges of treason, bribery and espionage "because the public wants to see a scapegoat." Cool and occasionally wry, the former chief of Communist East Germany's embarrassingly successful espionage network defended his 30-year career of stealing the West's most precious secrets as an honorable duty to a sovereign state whose laws he did not break.

Markus Wolf, reputed to be the Cold War's most cunning spymaster, goes on trial today for treason, an unbowed and unbroken victim of his own spectacular success. The case of the Federal Republic of Germany vs. Markus Wolf is one of ironies within ironies, intrigues within intrigues, a denouement worthy of the John le Carre thrillers whose crafty protagonist Karla is said to be modeled after Wolf himself.

A lengthy attempt to prosecute Markus Wolf, the legendary "man without a face" who ran East Germany's spy agency for more than 30 years, ended with a whimper Tuesday as a state high court gave him a two-year suspended sentence on relatively minor charges and let him leave the courthouse a free man.

Markus Wolf, the former East German spymaster, faced a second trial Tuesday, this time to answer charges in a case that is probably the German state's last good chance to prosecute a prominent member of the defunct Communist regime's leadership. Virtually all other ranking, former East German officials have died, grown too sick to stand trial or been made by circumstances to seem too washed-up or irrelevant to be satisfying targets for blame for the wrongs of the East German state.

Germany's federal appeals court threw out the conviction of former East German spymaster Markus Wolf and ordered a retrial to determine if he ever personally spied in the West. The decision follows a May 23 ruling by Germany's highest court that East German spy leaders could not be tried for treason if their work was done entirely in East Germany. Wolf, who headed East Germany's foreign intelligence service from 1953 to 1986, was sentenced to six years in prison in 1993 for espionage.

For addicts of Cold War cloak-and-dagger intrigue, this was the moment. In all the public glare that German democracy could muster, Guenther Guillaume, the East German spy who pulled off one of the great coups in the annals of espionage, walked into a courtroom here Wednesday, called by the state to testify against his former chief, Markus Wolf, the Communist world's most cunning spymaster.

Four weeks after opening amid a flurry of publicity, eyes focus once again Wednesday on the trial of the Cold War's most innovative spymaster, Markus Wolf, the man who developed and directed East Germany's network of 5,000 to 6,000 espionage agents. Scheduled to take the stand is Guenther Guillaume, who spy buffs remember was the East German agent that Wolf planted in the office of then-West German Chancellor Willy Brandt.

The Cold War's most notorious spymaster, Markus Wolf, went on trial Tuesday in united Germany, contending that he faces "absurd" charges of treason, bribery and espionage "because the public wants to see a scapegoat." Cool and occasionally wry, the former chief of Communist East Germany's embarrassingly successful espionage network defended his 30-year career of stealing the West's most precious secrets as an honorable duty to a sovereign state whose laws he did not break.

For addicts of Cold War cloak-and-dagger intrigue, this was the moment. In all the public glare that German democracy could muster, Guenther Guillaume, the East German spy who pulled off one of the great coups in the annals of espionage, walked into a courtroom here Wednesday, called by the state to testify against his former chief, Markus Wolf, the Communist world's most cunning spymaster.

Markus Wolf, the Cold War's most cunning spymaster, coolly walked into the hands of his old enemies Tuesday in an intriguing plot twist to a real-life thriller that has spanned more than 30 years. But it remained to be seen whether Germany's arrest of the legendary "man without a face" will finally unlock the secrets of the brilliant East German spy network that Wolf once ran or will merely pry open a political Pandora's Box.

Markus Wolf, reputed to be the Cold War's most cunning spymaster, goes on trial today for treason, an unbowed and unbroken victim of his own spectacular success. The case of the Federal Republic of Germany vs. Markus Wolf is one of ironies within ironies, intrigues within intrigues, a denouement worthy of the John le Carre thrillers whose crafty protagonist Karla is said to be modeled after Wolf himself.

Criminal charges were filed Thursday against Markus Wolf, the legendary "man without a face" who ran Communist East Germany's devastatingly successful network of Cold War spies. The Federal Prosecutor's Office accused Wolf, 69, of espionage, bribery and treason in an indictment that ticked off a dozen of his most dazzling exploits. Wolf, who surrendered to German officials earlier this year, remained free on bond pending trial.